


Another Time Loop

by Heather Dursley (Keolah)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Time Loop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:45:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5758198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Heather%20Dursley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harry has been through more time loops than he can remember. But he's okay with that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Time Loop

The worst part was always being a baby again. There were plenty of ways to change one's apparent age, though, and the Dursleys weren't too concerned about what Harry did when he was out of their sight, so long as he didn't attract undue attention from the neighbors. And so long as he still returned to the Dursleys regularly, he wouldn't get any undue attention from Dumbledore.

Harry systematically destroyed Voldemort's Horcruxes before his eleventh birthday. After so many loops, he'd gotten it down to an art how quickly and expediently he could do it. Every loop that he wasn't explicitly bringing back Voldemort, he made sure to get those out of the way as soon as possible, to avoid being bothered. And he'd brought back Voldemort a few times. Redeemed him, joined him, let him do whatever he wanted just to see what he did. After so many loops, doing something different just for the sake of seeing what happened had its appeal.

Many loops, he didn't even bother going to Hogwarts. He'd attended every magical school in the world, and founded a few, too. He'd been to a fair few Muggle schools as well.

With the Horcruxes taken care of, he let things play out as normal, just cutting past anything that was usually too annoying. He grabbed his Hogwarts letter without fanfare and went off to Diagon Alley himself.

"Hello," Draco Malfoy greeted him cordially while getting his robes. "Hogwarts, too?"

Harry couldn't help but smile a little at seeing him again. The last few lives had been stressful, particularly the previous one, seeing everyone he'd ever cared about dying horribly. No matter how many loops he made, a hundred years still felt like a hundred years.

"Yeah," Harry said. "It's nice to meet you."

"Do you know what house you'll be in?"

Harry had been in every house, made friends with everyone in his year in one loop or another. He shrugged. "Any of them are fine to me."

"Really? Even Hufflepuff?"

Harry smiled fondly. "Yeah. There's worse things in the world than being loyal and diligent."

"I guess," Draco groused.

It was a conversation he'd had a million times before. One he'd turned just as many different ways, sometimes saying and doing completely ridiculous things just to see what would happen. But this time, it was alright. He was fine with the scene playing out as it had a thousand times.

Harry went into Ollivanders and picked up his wand without bothering with the process, and waited for the train at the Leaky Cauldron.

It was unbelievably refreshing seeing everyone safe and happy as children again. Innocent and whole, unscarred by the trials of war. In the last loop, he hadn't even bothered with school, and had spent the time tracking down forgotten artifacts in ancient ruins. Which had unleashed an army of demons upon the world. That had probably been a bad idea.

Harry came into the Great Hall and went up to put the Sorting Hat on his head when his name was called.

"Hmm, very interesting," the Sorting Hat murmured in his ear. "Where to put you? You could do well in any of the houses."

He wasn't here to protect everyone. He'd done that many times, and many more times had wound up destroying them or seeing them destroyed because of his actions, intentional or not. Nobody could ever be on the same side. Nobody could ever agree on anything. But in the end, people could fly or fall on their own merits. He didn't have to solve everything. He didn't have to be the chosen one.

He didn't need to learn. He'd already learned everything Hogwarts could teach him, and much more. Lifetimes of learning, spells long forgotten, rituals that no mortal man should know of.

He didn't need to be ambitious. He'd taken over the world as a few times. It was kind of passe. He'd been the Minister of Magic. He'd been a tyrannical Dark Lord. He'd ruled over wizards and Muggles alike in the name of the greater good. He'd even taken wizards to live on the moon once. That had been a strange life.

No, he didn't really care about any of that at the moment. Right now, all he'd wanted to do was to see his friends again.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

He gave a small smile as he pulled off the hat. Yeah, he could live with that.


End file.
